The Prairie Press (IL)

by Gary Henry, CHRISMAN, IL

Traveler asks profound questions, no easy answers

[Excerpt] McCormick is not an ideologue who expects everything to turn around at once because he is involved.

“We all have the right to speak, but we don’t have the right to be listened to,” he said. “My hope is people in Washington will be willing to listen because I walked 1,700 miles for what I believe in.”

His concern is the economics of current human activity in terms of finances and what it is doing to the environment.

“Our debt is close to a trillion dollars,” said McCormick. “That is a global issue. Current humans are spending more than we create.”

The intergenerational justice aspect is the interest and principle on that debt is left to future generations and how that will hinder how people live and what they can accomplish in the future.

“We haven’t accepted the responsibility of being the Earth’s current humans,” said McCormick. “My grandchildren and future generations will suffer for that, and I don’t think that is just.”

It is not just debt that worries him. A rapidly deteriorating global environment caused by human activity has the potential to cause unimagined suffering for future humans, and we are running out of time to address the problem in a meaningful way.

“The most recent U.N. report says we have 10 years to avoid a climate catastrophe,” said McCormick. …